Orosi Road Race (3/24/07)

Course: 62 mi w/a great 30Mi loop; 2,500ft elevation gain/lap
Lessons: always trust your intuition, unless you have a bad track-record; never under or overestimate the power of the break; ALWAYS know where the finish line is!

After a dawn patrol departure, I arrived in Orosi in about 3hrs. Registration, bathroom, warm up, line up: 8:50. The field is about 30 riders with a large Simply Fit group--maybe 7--a few ZTeamers, two EMC, two Sierra Nevada, and an assortment of other teams. Friendly chatting about races past, bike components, and the course for the day, and the whistle goes.

A two mile promenade to the left turn where the group rolls past the feed zone, followed by the finish line about a quarter mile later. Remember that. . .

We are riding as a group with no real urgency and the climb begins about a mile past the finish, when the pace quickens. Nothing blistering, but it picked up. Soon, a few riders launch, but no one seems to care, including me. I watch the three roll away thinking that they will be back soon, as usual.

10-15 minutes later, we are still climbing and the break seems to be holding about 40 seconds in front of us. At this point, I know there are three teams represented: Sierra Nevada, Simply Fit, and I later learn, PenVelo. I was happy to ride toward the front of the "chasers" occasionally sitting in, occasionally pushing the pace. My thoughts are to keep moving to catch the other riders and draw out the riders willing to climb hard in the process.

As we approach the top of the climb, I see we have about 15 riders, not including the 3 off the front. At this point, I figure this is the break and realize that the 4-5 Simply Fit (SF) guys are not going to do a lick of work; a Pine Flat replay. So, I start talking up the sales pitch. "These guys aren't going to do anything to help catch their team mate, so we need to do it or else watch these guys roll away, . . .Blah, Blah, Blah!" Talking to myself, I am. Not much help from anyone, but Barney from Reno, Tom from Z and a gut from Santa Cruz. But, I am watching myself so I don't waste too much energy, either. They are still away after the rollers, then comes the descent.

Tom from Z takes off, and I follow preferring to be at the front of a descent I don't know. And we are hauling ass. . .I get a lot uncomfortable going into this one corner: off camber and a bit gravely. Trying to stay safe, I dumped a lot of speed, but still went in too fast and was on the edge of road and grass followed by not much. Fortunately, I made it through and vowed to be a bit more alert the rest of the way down, and remember this turn on the way back second time around.

When the rest regrouped, I hear chatting about, yes, riders going down. I asked who, and Dave from SF says white, orange, and blue=Sierra Nevada. He says that they both went down, one HARD. I absolutely hate hearing this stuff, but on we go, and I let the course marshall know when we see one. We were in the middle of nowhere, which is good and bad. No more news about this the rest of the day.

On we go, about 8 strong, and roll up, down, up, then way down to the valley floor for about 5 miles of flats, until we start the loop again. During this time, I am eating, drinking, and doing whatever I can to ward off cramps: I don't want the same finish I had at Pine Flat, and I hear grumblings of the "c" word from other riders, too. I drink up, and get ready for the feed zone (which is BEFORE the finish!).

Second lap: still no sign of the two off the front. We caught one of the guys before the crash-descent, and unfortunately, he was one of the riders to go down. But, I am sure we will be seeing the other two soon, as we are not noodling, and they must be getting tired!

So, on the climb second time up, I figure the nonSF riders should keep the pace high to make the SF guys work--they hadn't been doing much so far--since at least they would be a bit more tired when we catch their other rider, who will be spent, and we can hopefully spit them off the back in one lump sum. So the theory goes. I am talking all this up with our break companions trying to get them to work on the hills, descent, and rollers. We have lost a number of others on the climb, and are down to five riders, one of which is an SF guy; I remember him from Everest and know he is strong, and he is sitting in! Not good.

Eventually, we catch his team mate. We pick him up as we are getting toward the last of the rollers, before the big drop to the valley floor. Still, not everyone is pulling, in spite of repeated urges, and we only have one guy left to catch. . .racing strategy? Bluffs? Reality? Hmmm.

I am feeling good enough, was satisfied with my contributions on the climbs, and decided to ride as hard as possible before the descent. If anyone was having trouble, they would drop off, but no such luck. We get to the flats together.

On the flats, I am happy to sit in, drinking, eating, reminding myslef to be patient in the sprint. As we turn right and head toward the finish, the positioning and sprint strategy begins. Things feel too quiet and slow, and I start to figure someone is about to go. Just as I say to the two riders in front of me to watch the left, off goes the SF guy who was in the break. He sure seemed more tired when we caught him! He is going pretty good, but I know we are way too far from the finish for it to last. He eventually pops, and we slow momentarily.

ZTom goes to the left of the road, and I tell the Santa Cruz rider to watch him; sure enough, he takes off hard, and I am hoping SC will pull me/us up, but he pops! So, out comes Webcor Dave from behind me to get us up there, and I am glad to have him pull. We are approaching the shade tent with a good way to go, and as we are closing on ZTom, both Tom and Dave slow, pulling to the side of the road. I am tired, hot, and confused, but aware enough to know the finish is UP THE ROAD! So, I accelerate, going as hard as I can, look back seeing no one, and realize I can cruise in, as no one else is around! So, I got second which was perfectly fine; we never caught the PenVelo rider who I never expected to stay off. But, he deserved the win, if he was able to do that kind of a (nearly) solo effort. Too bad for the guys sprinting for the feedzone tent; that was a hard lesson. I also found out that SF Dave was cramping on the climb second time up, so the strategy worked. . .at least in part.

Great race. I highly recommend it!

-Tao Bernardi

Cherry Pie Criterium (2/11/07)

Group: 45+ 3/4
Weather: Mostly sunny with dry roads
Course: Reverse direction (C-Cl) from past years with better pavement
Teammates: Alan Nielson, Craig Stowers and Kevin Torbett

In my opinion, the course is vastly improved. The nasty potholes are gone and the turn at the bottom of the descent is nice and wide.

There were quite a few prime laps to liven things up. At about 5 to go they announced a two deep prime and at the bottom of the descent there were three of us a bit off the front (Darryl Smith of ICCC and an English guy named Mark). We agreed to work to stay away. Al Nielson was blocking (sitting on the front of the pack soft pedaling - Thanks Al!) and succeeded in helping our gap grow. The break worked well together and we stayed away. I just barely caught Mark at the line for first, and Al sprinted for 10th.

I thought this was another very well run race and the course is great.

-Rick Martyn

Patterson Pass Road Race (1/27/07)

The Pegasus/VandenBerghe Properties Team was represented by Tony Homes and Rick Martyn in the Elite 3; Pat McLaughlin, John Wooldridge, Matt Yaden, and Chris Callahan in the M35+ 4/5[A], and Bob Rosemeyer and me in the M45+ 4/5. Chris earned the Ironman Award for showing up while still recovering from a bout with the flu. We made our presence known. Rick placed 2nd. Pat, John, and Matt took 3rd, 4th, and 6th respectively -- they may have moved up one place pending a protest. We lucked out in the rain department -- we hit a window.

As for the M45+ 4/5 race, Bob and I hovered in the front on the way out prior to the steep pitch [field of 22]. I hammered the climb and would have benefited from a summit and/or turnaround preem [a fuchsia-colored t-shirt would have been nice]. I went solo until a chase group caught me at about the 13 milepost. The group included four Reno Wheelman riders. Bob was there as well. The eight of us worked together to get to the “sprint” finish. I didn’t have anything for a sprint and was no help for Bob. Bob came in sixth with me two places back. We were pleased with the race, though Bob believes he could have made a better challenge on the winner at the end. I enjoyed working with Bob and we made an impact on the race. Hats off to the Reno Wheelman Team who placed five riders in the top nine.